Anyone have any pointers and/or things to look out for? I am planning to refinish the stock on my Mosin Nagant (really beat up, made in 1933), and possibly my SVT40. I am planning to use a Birchwood Cassey kit, and was wondering to to disasseble it. Also, how easy would it be for me to re-blue both guns if I wanted to?

If the rifle has metal escutcheons around the sling slots, the trick to removing them is to hammer out the mounting tabs from the opposite side... veeery carefully. I actually recommend leaving the little suckers in the stock and working around them. It's really easy to bugger up the wood when you take them out.

The stock reinforcement nut can be removed by bending a small U-shaped tab out of coat hanger wire, inserting the ends into the holes in the nut, holding the tab with Vice-Grips, and turning the tab. Work carefully- again, it's easy to bugger up the wood.

The barrel bands won't fit over the front sight. Don't fret over this; there's no reason you can't simply leave them hanging off the barrel. Don't try to open them up far enough to fit over the barrel because you may permanently deform them. Don't drift out the front sight to take them off because you'll have to re-zero the sights.

The trigger pin is not very tightly fitted and will usually fall out if you simply tilt the receiver and shake it. It can (and will) fall out when you remove the action from the stock. Remove the action straight up, not tilted over on its side, and watch for the pin. Don't work in a place where the pin may be permanently lost if it falls out and rolls away.

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It's your gun and you can do what you want with it but I really wouldn't suggest refinishing the stock of the SVT40. It's a rare gun and worth quite a deal in original condition. Refinishing the stock would cut its value severely.

The stock reinforcement nut can be removed by bending a small U-shaped tab out of coat hanger wire, inserting the ends into the holes in the nut, holding the tab with Vice-Grips, and turning the tab. Work carefully- again, it's easy to bugger up the wood.

I did this for my M91/30 and it was difficult to loosen and almost impossible to re-tighten to where it was originally. If I hadn't surrounded the hole with several strips of masking tape I would have marred the new finish. Faced with disassembling an M24/47 and an M95, both of which have the same type of nut, I plunked down $4 for a cheap set of slip ring pliers. I use a crescent wrench or a pair of vice grips to keep the fingers of the pliers from twisting from the torque.

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The SVT-40 can be sort of tricky, and it wasn't really intended to be separated from the stock on a regular basis (it would have been sent back to a depot armourer if it required it), but field-stripping is pretty simple. Ensure the rifle is empty and the magazine is removed, with the rifle cocked. At the rear of the receiver, there's a notched flap that rotates to the side, exposing a collar/plunger inside a hole. Pressing in on that collar releases the trigger guard/floorplate from the bottom of the rifle, which swings down and out. The top cover on the rifle also holds in the recoil spring and guide, with a semi-circular notch that the rear of the guide-rod fits into on the bottom rear of the cover (if it slips out while you're taking it out or putting it in, it can launch the rod at your eyes, so be careful). When you've got the recoil assembly separated from the cover, the cover will slide forward and lift off, folowed by the bolt in the same way. That is about as far as most people are going to go without some specialized tools for removing the stock bolt and the gas piston, but it does let you clean most of the rifle. Since most 7.62x54R is going to be at least mildy corrosive, it's a good idea to slosh out the gas system with Windex (the ammonia gets rid of the worst of it), and then blow it out with compressed air, folowed by a light oiling.

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I'm holding off on the SVT for now...but as for the Mosin Nagant I will defienietly refinish the stock. I plan on hunting with it on ocassion, and the first time I cleaned it I rubbed off a bit of the finish with a rag on accident. Also, what would be the best way to remove rust and whatnot without stripping the blueing?

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